


No wands or light sabres involved

by bunnysworld



Series: Have a Camelot Christmas 2017 [17]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boarding School, M/M, Magic, Teenagers, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: Arthur asks Merlin to show him his magic





	No wands or light sabres involved

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Day 17 of Have a Camelot Christmas!

They lay on the bed and Merlin loved that Arthur had put his arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. He wouldn’t have minded at all if he had to stay in this position for the rest of his life. It was all so exciting, still so new, that his heart was beating far quicker than it was supposed to and his mind was spinning. Only three days ago, Arthur had more or less accidentally told him that he loved him; in the middle of a shouting match over his books and Arthur’s sport stuff thrown all around the room. Merlin’s had a crush on Arthur in forever, but never thought someone like Arthur could be remotely interested in him. And then there had been the shouted ‘I love you, you moron!’ and his world had changed completely. Good thing it happened on a Friday night, or else they might have missed their classes for the next couple of days. 

It was Sunday now and the sun had set a while ago, the frosty winter night clear and starry as could be. Merlin snuggled closer against Arthur.

“Merlin?”

Tilting his head up a little, Merlin blinked. He had thought that Arthur was asleep. “Yes?” He shivered when Arthur started stroking his arm with the tips of his fingers.

“You’ve never showed me.”

“Huh?”

“Your magic. You have never showed me. I know you are and you can do things. But you don’t even clean up the room with it.” Arthur chuckled slightly, obviously remembering the fight that had brought them to his bed. 

Merlin was silent for a moment. “I never thought you cared. And it’s a well-known fact that your father despises everything magic.” Oh Gosh, what would Arthur’s father say if he found out that his son was with him?

“Urgh.”

“Huh?”

“Never mention father again when we are here like this.”

Merlin chuckled. “Sorry.”

They fell silent and Merlin loved hearing Arthur’s heartbeat from where he had his ear against him. 

“Would you?” Arthur asked after a while.

“What?”

“Show me?”

Merlin pulled back in surprise. “You want me to show you my magic?”

Even in the sparse light coming from the stars and the moonlight reflecting from the snow outside, Merlin could see Arthur blushing. 

“If it’s not too personal?”

Merlin scrambled up. “Are you sure?”

Arthur nodded.

Worrying his lower lip with his teeth, Merlin tried to think of something. He had been told that in times long gone, it had been normal for people to practice their magic. Nowadays, it wasn’t common to even have magic and you didn’t just do it in the open. There were a lot of people out there who thought it was an unfair advantage or even fraud to do things with magic. So Merlin usually took care that nobody saw him. 

He moved around and made Arthur sit up and lean against the headboard before he snuggled against him again. “Are you really sure?”

“You don’t have to…I shouldn’t have asked.”

Merlin shook his head and then couldn’t hold back a delighted chuckle. “Wait.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were glowing golden and when he opened his fists and held his palms upward, little sparkles of light appeared.

“Whoa.”

The sparkles flew up the ceiling of their room and recreated the starry night sky. Their desks and bookshelf disappeared from view and made space for a beautiful wintery landscape with lots of untouched snow. A deer was peeking out of the woods in the distance, seemed to look at them trying to figure out if they were any threat and then disappeared again. The almost full moon reflected in the little lake. 

Merlin hoped that the scene wasn’t too kitsch-y. On a whim of inspiration, he made Santa’s sleigh appear in the sky, filled with presents, drawn by the reindeer. 

When Arthur chuckled, Merlin closed his eyes and the scene slowly vanished, only leaving the familiar view of the room they had shared for a few years. Hardly daring to breathe, Merlin waited for a reaction. 

Arthur, who had stared open-mouthed, was silent. That was a bad sign, wasn’t it?

“Arthur?” He whispered, hoping he hadn’t overwhelmed Arthur and scared him away with this little display. 

“Wow.” Arthur finally moved and looked at Merlin with an expression that Merlin only ever had seen on him when a sportsman had done something incredible during the Olympics or so. “I never knew.”

“Is it…is it bad?” A cold hand seemed to have grabbed Merlin’s heart. What if Arthur wouldn’t like him anymore?

“It’s…wow. How do you do it?”

Shrugging, Merlin pulled the blanket up a bit. “Don’t know, it’s just there.”

“Do you…I don’t know, do you feel it? Like…like there is a second one of you in there?”

Merlin frowned for a moment before laughing. “No, it’s just me. It’s not like I’ve got a split personality. One magic, one not. It’s just there.”

“So you could accidentally do magic?”

“What do you mean? Like…walking down the corridor, turning people into frogs without wanting it?”

Arthur stared at him. “You can turn people into frogs?????”

“Never tried it before, but there’s an idea.” Merlin grinned. 

“How…I mean, how do you do the glow-y eyes thing?”

Merlin shrugged again. “I just focus on my magic and it happens.”

“Don’t you need a wand?” Arthur made a face the moment the words had left his mouth. 

Chuckling again, Merlin shook his head. “Wands are for beginners.” He should have been so sick of all the Harry Potter references he’d ever heard in his life, but coming from Arthur, who seemed to be in awe of his magic, it wasn’t so bad. 

“So you’ve started practicing with a wand?”

“Wingardium leviosa? No. It’s always been there. Apparently I have moved things around even as a baby.”

“Do you always do that thing with your hands?”

“It’s a bit easier to focus the magic, to give it a direction, if I can use them. If I can’t, I can do it without. It’s different for every magic user.” He didn’t need to tell Arthur exactly how powerful he was. He didn’t even really know it himself, he’d just never met anyone with greater powers. He still struggled with the image of the most powerful wizard to ever walk the earth. It felt liberating, though, to be able to talk to Arthur about it. 

“Is it…exhausting? Like when you ran really fast during a footie match and think you can’t take another step?”

Merlin chuckled. “Not exactly like that, but depending on what I do, yes, it can be exhausting. Like…mentally exhausting and then it gets physically exhausting, too.”

Arthur still looked at him and a mischievous expression crossed his face. “Can you manipulate what people are doing and saying?”

“That’s not a good kind of magic.”

“You didn’t say you couldn’t!”

“I probably could, but that’s a dark path that I won’t follow.” 

“Come to the dark side…we have cookies.” Arthur grinned at his own joke. “So you’re more Master Merlin than Darth Merlin?”

Merlin grinned. He had always loved how easy the movie references came to Arthur. “Yes, kind of. No wands or light sabres involved, though.”

There was another little silence and Merlin put his head on Arthur’s shoulder. It was so weird to talk about this. He had never spoken about his magic with anyone but his mam and Gaius, sometimes with other magic users, but never with someone outside. It made you vulnerable, but it felt right to tell Arthur. 

“Merlin?” Arthur whispered.

“Hmm?” 

“Thank you for showing me.”

“Mmhmm.” 

“Next time…could you show me the score of the footie match next weekend?” Arthur could barely contain the laughter.

Merlin just groaned.


End file.
